Ingeborg Bachmann
born June 25, 1926, Klagenfurt,
Austria
died Oct. 17, 1973, Rome, Italy
Austrian author whose sombre, surreal
writings often deal with women in failed
love relationships, the nature of art
and humanity, and the inadequacy of
language.
Bachmann grew up in Kärnten during
World War II and was educated at the
Universities of Graz, Innsbruck, and
Vienna. She received a doctoral degree
in philosophy from Vienna in 1950.
Bachmann’s literary career began in
earnest in 1952, when she read her
poetry to members of the avant-garde
Gruppe 47. She produced two volumes of
verse, Die gestundete Zeit (1953;
“Borrowed Time”), about the sense of
urgency produced by the passage of time,
and Anrufung des grossen Bären (1956;
“Invocation of the Great Bear”),
featuring poems of fantasy and
mythology. Of her several radio plays,
the best known is Der gute Gott von
Manhattan (1958; “The Good God of
Manhattan” in Three Radio Plays). First
broadcast on May 29, 1958, it is about a
couple attacked by a covert group that
seeks to destroy all traces of love.
Following Bachmann’s five landmark
lectures on literature at the University
of Frankfurt in 1959–60, she shifted her
focus from poetry to fiction. During
this period she also wrote the libretti
for Hans Werner Henze’s operas Der Prinz
von Homberg (1960; from a play by
Heinrich von Kleist) and Der junge Lord
(1965; from a fable by Wilhelm Hauff).
Among her prose writings are Das
dreissigtse Jahr (1961; The Thirtieth
Year) and the lyrical novel Malina
(1971; Eng. trans. Malina). She also
published essays, stories, and more
radio plays. Her death by fire may have
been a suicide.
Much attention was given to
Bachmann’s work both in her lifetime and
after her death, and several of her
writings were translated into English. A
volume of selected poems, In the Storm
of Roses, was published in 1986; it was
the inspiration for Elizabeth Vercoe’s
composition In the Storm: Four Songs on
Texts by Ingeborg Bachmann for medium
voice, clarinet, and piano. Some of
Bachmann’s stories were translated in
Three Paths to the Lake (1989), and a
bilingual edition of her collected
poems, translated and introduced by
Peter Filkins, was published as Songs in
Flight (1995). Fragments of two novels
intended to complete the trilogy begun
with Malina were translated and
published together in a single volume
entitled The Book of Franza & Requiem
for Fanny Goldmann (1999).
